Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-05-27
SALT AND IT'S SAVIOR.
why the United states Have TO Inn
port so Much OF This Commodity.


port 80 Much OF This Commodity.
Not many people know that in
spite Of the wonderful salt wells and
salt deposits in tbs country we annu-
ally import immense quantities OF
salt, said ii. Ii. Miller. commission
merchant, the other day. "Our inn
portations are constantly increasing,
too, although the output of our own
salt factories keeps pace with the
growth of the population, and there is
a considerable duty on all kinds OF salt
The reason is that certain fine grades
and special kinds of salt are not made
in this country. You can get about as
good dairy or table salt from New York
or Michigan wells as from anywhere
in the world, but you can't get the
coarse salt used in packing meats for
export, the quickly dissolving Turks
island salt used in the ice cream facto-
ries, nor the curious Spanish salts that
the street-car companies sprinkle on
their tracks when they think Henry
Bergh isn't looking. All the domestic
salt except that which is mined in Lou
isiana, is made by evaporating. by ar
titical heart, brine pumped out of the
earth. The very valuable coarse salt
which we import is made by evaporat-
ing sea water in the open air. 1t is
made where people can afford TO wait
three or four months for few dollars.
Where's that? Well. along the Medi-
terranean, for instance. The people
there dam up little bsv aud wait un-
til the sun and the winds have carried
the water away. Ii ism. very pure
salt that they scrape up off the mud.
but it is indispensable for some pur-
poses.
The experiment of making solar salt
has been tried in tn S country, but with
out much success. The quality of the
sea water varies a good deal. 1t will
deposit one kind of salt on one island
and another perceptibly different, even
TO the eye. on another island perhaps
not more than forty miles away. We
do an immense trade with the West
Indies in salt. There are dozen plac-
es that furnish altogether different
kinds of salt, and each has its particu-
lar use. One very fine and easily sol
uble variety is used in the favoring of
chew .ng tobacco. Not many chewers
know this, but they would find out very
quickly that something was lack ng
if the salt should be omitted Some
phys clans have thought that the pres.
ence of the salt makes the tobacco very
injurious.
There isn't so much English dairy
salt imported as there used to be. At
one time manufacturers OF fine butter
thought that their products would be
utterly ruined if anything but fine Eng
lish salt touched them 1t ism so now.
For one reason, American saltmakers
have learned the tr OK of making good
dairy salt, and for another, American
salt has got TO be wonderfully cheap.
Out in the Saginaw reg on of Michigan
the salt wells are right by the side Of
lumber mills. All that is necessary
is 10 attach to the mill machinery a
pump to draw up the brine and feed the
sawdust and timber waste, which
would otherwise be thrown away. to the
evaporating kettles In that way salt
can be made for about ~ cents BUSH
ell. Gentlemen who own salt wells and
lumber mills in Michigan are usually
rich enough to buy out an ordinary
state. "-Ne,0 York commercial Adrer-
tiSer.